American Polar Hare 
to the last decade. The first are said to have been brought here 
from Massachusetts by an old fox hunter some thirty years ago.” 
The earlier writers of the natural history of this country pretty 
generally agree in giving the habitat of the northern hare as the whole 
of the Eastern states south to Virginia, and scarcely allude to the gray 
rabbit at all, some authors describing it as a Western species not 
found east of the Mississippi. But Thoreau’s diary written in the 
woods of Concord, Massachusetts, half a century ago and more, 
makes no mention of the larger species, all the hares referred to being 
unmistakably cotton-tails. 
Last winter, 1898-9, I paid frequent visits to the only permanent 
colony of white rabbits that 1 know of in this region, situated three 
or four miles to the northeast, where they occupy perhaps one 
hundred acres of old growth timber, only occasionally wandering into 
the neighbouring woods and swamps where the gray rabbits abound. 
But the latter in small numbers penetrate to all parts of the 
white rabbits’ domain, some of them even taking up their quarters in 
the very heart of it, and | have sore misgivings that sooner or later 
the original inhabitants will be forced to leave, for just as the white 
men have driven away the dark-skinned native, so among the hares 
matters seem to be reversed, and the dark-skinned new-comer 
is driving off the native whites. 
Varieties of the Varying Hare 
1. Varying Hare. Lepus americanus virginianus (Harlan). Range 
and description as above. 
2. Labrador Varying Hare. Lepus americanus Erxleben. .Yellow- 
ish-brown to drab in summer, always pure white in winter. 
Range. Replaces the former in the wooded regions of 
Labrador. 
3. Nova Scotian Varying Hare. Lepus americanus struthiopus Bangs. 
Much darker and duller than the varying hare, with no ferru- 
ginous tints. 
Range. ‘Yakes the place of the common form in Nova Scotia. 
American Polar Hare 
Lepus arcticus Ross 
Called also Arctic Hare, White Hare. 
Length. 23 inches. 
Description. Hair somewhat curly, white at all seasons except the 
tips of the ears which are blackish; a few long blackish hairs 
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